


more than a warning

by crookedspoon



Category: The Lorax (2012)
Genre: Face-Fucking, Frottage, M/M, Non-Consensual Blow Jobs, Self-cest, Time Travel, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:01:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22339690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedspoon/pseuds/crookedspoon
Summary: One fine day, the Once-ler does not only meet one, but two of his future selves. One of them is kind of hot.
Relationships: Oncest, The Once-ler/The Once-ler
Comments: 10
Kudos: 42
Collections: Return to the Iron Triangle - January 2020





	more than a warning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chicago_ruth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicago_ruth/gifts).



> With apologies to Dr. Seuss and Ed Helms.

It's a sunny day in the Truffula fields and Once-ler has just finished sowing another Thneed that he'll surely soon sell, when a stranger in dusty clothing approaches him on a fancy-looking motorcycle.

 _Finally!_ Once-ler thinks and leaps eagerly to his feet. It must be a customer. Who else who trudge all the way out here if they didn't need a Thneed? There is nothing else out here one could want, unless one was a Bar-ba-loot or a Swomee-Swan.

"Have you come to buy a Thneed?" he calls to the stranger. "You're in luck! For a limited time, you can get two for the price of one."

Once-ler can't see the stranger's face because he seems to be pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head which, if you ask Once-ler, is just rude.

"You're never going to sell anything like this, kid," the stranger says with a voice like an iron file.

The stranger laboriously clambers off his bike and pats down his clothes. A huge cloud of dust rises from them. Once-ler lifts his newly knitted Thneed to his face for protection. It's so versatile, his Thneed. He should pitch this to the stranger if he's not yet convinced.

"Not that I need to see another Thneed in my life."

"Hey, it's going to be a trend soon, I just know it."

"Oh, it's going to be a trend, all right. And then you're going to wish you had never come up with it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Once-ler demands. He's getting a little annoyed by the stranger's attitude. _Relax, Oncie. The customer is king and you're really never going to sell anything if you blow up at him._

"Well, I guess you wouldn't recognize me. What with all the smoking I did..."

"Am I... supposed to recognize you?" Once-ler is beginning to feel uncomfortable. What a weird guy.

"When was the last time you looked into a mirror, sonny?"

"Uh, just this morning?"

Without ceremony, the stranger grabs Once-ler by the arm and marches him to his Lerkim as if he owned the place. The living space is thankfully empty of the Lorax and the Bar-ba-loots who have decided to shack up with him, much to Once-ler's chagrin – Once-ler doesn't want to deal with them barging in on the situation on top of everything else.

The stranger shoves Once-ler in front of the mirror in the bathroom and smooshes their cheeks together.

"Ring a bell?" he asks just a moment before his expression slips and he crashes to his knees. "Oh God, when did I become so old?"

His drooping, patched-up top hat topples to the floor in the process of his expressive hair-tearing. At first, Once-ler was going to ignore this guy, who has obviously lost his mind or is losing it in real time in front of Once-ler, and Once-ler wants no part of it. At the same time, he doesn't know how to shoo the guy out of his Lerkim. Any movement he makes might call attention to him and what is Once-ler going to do if the guy latches onto him and—too late, he's already clinging to Once-ler's waist and crying into his waistcoat.

"Don't do it," the stranger bawls. Once-ler is taken aback by this display of emotion and doesn't know what to do.

"What are you talking about?" he asks, trying to get out of the stranger's hold. "Who are you and what do you want?"

The stranger wipes his face and grabs Once-ler by the collar. "Do you still not recognize me? I'm you!"

"Me?!"

"Yes, from the future!"

"But you look so old!"

"Well, you're not getting any younger, sonny, are you?"

Okay, now that he mentions it, Once-ler _can_ sort of see the uncanny resemblance, but maybe he's a long-lost older cousin, what with the wrinkles and all. Which Once-ler could actually believe. Future... pfff, yeah. Who has ever heard of something like _that_ happening?

"Now, buckle up, kid, because I've got a story to tell you before it's too late."

"Can it wait until after I've been to town to sell my Thneed?"

"Absolutely not!"

Perhaps he shouldn't have phrased that as a question. 

And so the Once-ler is regaled with a tale of success, corruption, and woe. At many points he is startled by the things the stranger seems to know – things that only Once-ler himself would know. But he is too distracted imagining himself at the very top of a business empire the like of which the world had never seen to let his suspicions take root. So what if the guy is some apparition the Lorax has sent to get him to go away? (Well, it would be a little rude, seeing as how I already agreed to abide by his rules, but.) It's not really doing its job. If anything, Once-ler is now more determined than ever to make it big.

"And that's why you shouldn't cut down the Truffula trees!" his future self concludes. 

"You wasted your breath. I already had that talk with the Lorax. I'm not cutting them down anymore."

"Yeah, but your family is going to pressure you into it when they arrive. You can't let them bully you, or you'll come to regret ever having invented the Thneed."

"Yeah," Once-ler says, putting his thread and needle aside. "I don't buy it. This is my lifelong dream! Why would I ever regret that?"

"Did you even listen to a word I said?"

"Well, you did go on for a long time, but it was all about what happened to _you._ "

"That was the point! Because it's going to happen to you, too, if you're not careful."

"You know, I don't believe any of this. I mean, it sounds like a nice fantasy and all, me being rich and famous, but I'm not the kind of person you describe. I'm not a bad guy. I won't do any of these horrible things you described."

"Oh buddy, I was once that naive but boy, did we go there. You wanna see yourself do these 'horrible things'?" the stranger – whom Once-ler is just going to call Old-ler from now on – kicks back the bike stand and slips into the seat rather stiffly. "Hop on. I'll take you there, so you can see it with your own eyes."

"Uh, sure? If you drop me off at the townsquare on the way back."

"Yeah, yeah." Old-ler heaves a big sigh. "If that's still where you want to go once we're back."

Once-ler hums his sales pitch as he straps his guitar to his back, picks up his bag of Thneed, and swings himself onto Old-ler's bike, which, come to think of it, looks a bit like a mechanized version of Melvin, his trusty mule.

Old-ler revs the engine once and a sudden flash blinds Once-ler. The world booms in his ears, disorienting him.

By the time his vision returns, he and Old-ler are standing in a large, high-ceilinged room with tall windows that overlook the sky.

Older harrumphs. "I had hoped to land outside, so you could have seen how we have polluted the area."

On the other side of the room, in front of the tall windows a figure with a giant top hat and round silvery sunglasses sits with their feet propped up on a giant desk, twirling an expensive-looking pen.

"Yeah, yeah! That sounds swell. Send them over. Hold on, I got a call on the other line—" He clicked a button on his black, glossy telephone. "Babe? Yeah, we're still on for tonight. You won't believe where I've booked us a table. One second – Honey? Of course I didn't forget your birthday. My assistant sent you a present, didn't she? Wait, I gotta call you back. I got visitors."

He hung up and leaped to his feet, already gesturing grandiosely with his arms spread wide, like his grin.

"Welcome to Thneedville. Where we provide you with everything you could ever need."

"Oh, save it, you fraud," Old-ler grumbles.

"Excuse me?"

"No! I'm done making excuses, especially for you who ruined my life!"

"Hold on," Once-ler interrupts the spat-in-the-making, "did you say Thneedville? As in, a whole town dedicated to my Thneed?"

"Well, technically _my_ Thneed, but yeah!" Top Hat Guy says and shoves Old-ler nonchalantly to the side. "Once the Thneed caught on and the need for it grew, I was able to keep biggering and biggering my company into what you see before you now. Pretty sweet, huh?"

"That is..." Once-ler looks between Old-ler and Top Hat Guy (who would be his other future self, if Old-ler is to be believed?), remembering the tale of caution, but also his own dream of bettering the world with his Thneed: "...so cool!"

Old-ler gapes at him, unable to pick his jaw up off the floor.

"I know, right?" his other future self agrees simply and hooks an arm around Once-ler's neck, pulling him close. "Wanna see the rest of the factory?"

"I do!"

Without sparing Old-ler another glance, Once-ler lets his other future self – Rich-ler, maybe? – lead him around. Once-ler is in awe at the sheer size of it all. He never would have dared to imagine he would make it this big, even though that was the dream he'd pursued since he first came up with his idea of the Thneed.

He can't wait to make it a reality in his own life! Rich-ler is the kind of guy Once-ler has always wanted to be, suave and savvy and stylish to boot. Once-ler nearly swoons when he lets a wad of cash rain around them, then uses another to fan air to Once-ler's face.

"You look faint. Perhaps you should lie down."

 _Just a little overwhelmed by it all,_ but it turns out he's too overwhelmed to speak.

So Rich-ler leads him up and down a few more flights of stairs, along a few more twists and turns, until Once-ler's head is thoroughly spinning and he lands face-first onto the four-poster bed in the lavish bedroom they somehow ended up in.

Once-ler hears soft fluttering and crinkling and something light lands on top of him, like thin strips of paper. With a tremendous amount of effort, he turns around and sees money raining down on him like giant green snowflakes. Rich-ler is making it rain.

Then, with a laugh, Rich-ler catapults himself onto the bed next to Once-ler, stirring up another great big cloud of money. It settles around them even as Rich-ler grins at him through his silvery sunglasses that reflect Once-ler's awe-struck expression.

"God, I was a cutie, wasn't I?" Rich-ler says and reaches out, brushing his green-gloved hand over Once-ler's cheek. "I could just eat you up."

Once-ler blushes. This is the first time anyone has ever expressed this kind of sentiment. Unless you count the big Bar-ba-loot, but that one would eat anything. Once-ler distinctly remembers that one time he opened his fridge to find the big Bar-ba-loot sliding an entire stick of butter down his throat. At the time, the correct thing to do seemed to be closing the door again and pretending he had seen nothing. Which was what he did. Pretending was easy. But he could not forget.

Yet with the creature he nicknamed Butterbear after that incident, the hunger had been understandable. Butterbear would eat anything, so why not Once-ler? The Lorax did call him beanpole, after all, so the food association was already there.

With Rich-ler, the hunger he sees is a different kind. It's raw. Sexual. Greedy. Like he'd take one bite of Once-ler and suck him clean down to the marrow, then throw what's left of him away same as yesterday's trash.

It doesn't matter that Once-ler can already see his own end in this scenario. To be looked at like that, even by his own future self, is exhilarating. So he does what he does best: he takes a leap of faith without considering the consequences.

He leans in and kisses Rich-ler.

With his eyes squeezed shut tightly, he can only feel Rich-ler's reaction – an amused chuckle. But so far he's not drawing back. That's a good sign, right?

"I used to be eager like you," Rich-ler says, brushing his thumb over Once-ler's chin. "Come on, let me show you how it's done."

Rich-ler is just as slight as Once-ler is, but he pins him to the mattress with ease and drapes himself on top of him, sliding his knees between Once-ler's legs. Once-ler is kind of embarrassed by how easily they fall open to accommodate Rich-ler between them, but at the same time, he doesn't want to ruin a good thing by overthinking it.

Rich-ler has lost the top hat when he dive bombed onto the bed; his hair is artfully tousled now, as if he had stylists come in and fix it for him. Once-ler has never looked this effortlessly cool. Or sexy. But there's something thrilling about knowing it lies in his future. He is curious to know what his secret is.

Not that Once-ler has the presence of mind to wonder for long. The moment Rich-ler caresses him, his brain basically shuts down, rolling over like a dog who wants his belly rubbed. Before today, Once-ler has never noticed how starved for touch he has been and now that he is getting a taste, he cannot get enough. He arches into Rich-ler's hands, writhing and shivering at the intensity of it all.

He's close to tears. It's like there is something more that he needs but he has no idea how to articulate it to have a chance of getting it. But Rich-ler seems to understand him just fine even without words.

"Don't worry, I got you," he says with a grin as he shifts his knee between Once-ler's legs and there it is. The sweet sort of pressure that hits just the right spot.

Once-ler can't help himself. He grinds himself down onto Rich-ler's leg, chasing that exhilarating high that is beginning to beckon him. He feels desperate, needy. His own hands grip Rich-ler's arms for dear life. If he moved away, Once-ler doesn't know what he would do. He needs him there, right there, and nothing else will do.

With a huge, knowing grin, Rich-ler moves one of his hands between their bodies and squeezes Once-ler's genitals _just so._ Once-ler comes with a stark cry, his wide-eyed, surprised expression reflected back at him. For a brief moment, as bliss and relief flood him, he wonders if this would be any different if Rich-ler didn't wear those glasses, if Once-ler could see his eyes. After all, it's still his face, right?

"There you go," Rich-ler's voice comes through the static in his ears. "That wasn't so bad, right?"

Once-ler doesn't know if he's supposed to nod or shake his head so he sort of does a vague jiggle with it and hopes that Rich-ler interprets it the correct way.

"Now it's my turn," Rich-ler says and pulls away.

Once-ler sobs at the sudden loss of contact. He would have loved to stay entwined with his future self a little longer. But alas. That's not what he has planned.

"Don't look at me like you didn't know this was coming," Rich-ler says as he unzips his pants. "Quid pro quo; that's the way the world works. You didn't think someone is just gonna do something nice for you without expecting something in return? Poor, naive boy. You still have a lot to learn. Just be glad that _I'm_ your teacher."

Rich-ler smiles and pats Once-ler's cheek as he settles above him, knees on either side of his lanky shoulders. His gloved thumb runs over Once-ler's bottom lip before Rich-ler grips his chin and tilts it down. Once-ler is too speechless to protest. Rich-ler's cock is standing erect not three inches from his face.

"Now, be a dear and mind those teeth, will you?"

Two fingers slide into his mouth to hold it open and Once-ler can only stare uncertainly up at Rich-ler, whose smile is sharp and eager. He brushes some of Once-ler's hair away from his forehead with his free hand and the gesture would almost be tender if he hadn't grabbed his head right after, to keep him still as he angles his cock into his mouth.

"That's it. You don't even have to do anything. Just lie there and take it. That'll be enough."

Once-ler nearly chokes when Rich-ler pushes his cock into his mouth. It's long and thin, just like the rest of him, and it has a curiously salty taste that makes the back of Once-ler's throat tickle. Not that he gets to dwell on the sensation for long because the next thing he knows, Rich-ler is sliding his cock in and out of his mouth and the need for air becomes more pressing.

Once-ler can't struggle. Rich-ler is all but sitting on his chest, legs pinning his arms, and the way he's using Once-ler's face is making his head spin. All Once-ler can focus on is his next breath. 

Big black spots have taken over his vision and his lungs are burning by the time Rich-ler lets up. He's hacking and coughing and gulping in noisy lungfuls of air when he feels something thick and hot and wet splash across his face. Gross.

"Not bad for your first time," Rich-ler says and pats the side of Once-ler's neck.

Then he finally swings himself off of Once-ler's chest. Maybe now Once-ler is going to be able to breathe easier.

Rich-ler plops down onto the bed next to him, head cushioned by an elbow, a cigar between his teeth. Rich-ler just grins at him as he lights it with a match, then takes it out long enough to gesture toward the nearest door.

"The bathroom is that way if you need to freshen up or want to prepare for round two."

"Round two?" Once-ler croaks.

"Sure. I'm going to teach you everything I know, so that you don't have to stumble along once you finally do get the chance to experience this for yourself."

Once-ler swallows. WIth difficulty. His throat hurts.

Maybe Old-ler was right. Maybe something is going to go seriously wrong with him in the future if he is going to end up like that guy. It's like he has no conscience anymore.

That thought is chilling. Once-ler is not a bad guy. And he doesn't want to end up like one. He has to find Old-ler so that they can leave this place behind.

But first, he needs to wash his face and rid himself of the evidence of what just happened. There's no telling what Oldler is going to say or do if he finds out and Once-ler prays that he won't. For the sake of his own dignity. Or whatever is left of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Set to the tune of Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by Set it Off.


End file.
